With our main monthly rides for the remainder of this year set it's time to look toward 2011.
To help improve the quality of service it would be handy to know peoples thoughts on a few key areas.

Firstly I'd like to know about frequency- is one main ride per month enough, too much or too little?

Geographic Spread... We have a large area to cover and also a need to support our neighbours in MacRetro, Lincs and NWA. This year we had rides in Bowland, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Scotland, Derbyshire and the Lakes. Being a large area it's difficult to put on local rides. Would you like to see a system where we stagger the rides 'North South' on a Bi-monthly basis?

Saturday-Sunday? What works best for you? I know some work Saturdays (me included) and some need to spend Sundays with young families (me included- not easy is it?)

With your help and honest answers, myself and Chris can tailor the rides in 2011 to give you what you want. Remember we are here as your servants, to give you the rides you want in the places you want. But please also remember we are part of the bigger picture that is RetroBike's National Events Calendar, providing a set number of National Quality Events (those present at the BDW will now know what we are trying to acheive), not all rides are to be local bimbles around the field edges!

Another consideration to take into account is how far you are all prepared to travel for a ride.

Being based in the far South of our area I can easily travel to the excellent riding the Peaks, Sherwood Pines, the Yorkshire Moors etc have to offer but I also realise that may be too much of a distance to travel for the members in the NE/Northumberland areas.

Si's Bi-Monthly North South split seems an excellent solution to me and I look forward to hearing your views.

The plan is to have one or two big events per year and also to support the big events of neighbouring areas. The rest of the year will be taken up with monthly rides across the region, these will be approx 20-25 miles with a 10-15 rider target and be organised to a minimum standard to ensure if someone takes the time and effort to attend is rewarded with a good quality ride. The format is not the question- It's the locations that we need suggestions for.
Smaller Local rides can be every week if you want but should be arranged within the chat threads as per the guidlines that the Area Groups have been asked to work within. It also keeps the main events more visible.

Our local rides, people have always been please to come along too. A ride in Dalby would be classed as a local ride, as would a 20 to 30 mile ride in the Wolds/Dales or general area for a change. With start stop and bailout options should anything bad happen or things needing to be cut short.
That's how we've always set them up as. What more does it need to reach the minimum standard ?
Does it have to go up a certain distance, have a mix of single track, roads ?
Not being pedantic, just these are not set out that I can see ?

No camp site organised or two day events but that's not what i'm getting as the jist of what is wanted, ours are like the Saturday of BDW, just not on the moors and of course with 1/3 to 1/6 as many riders currently.

Anyways, hope we can get some rides up.

Certainly need something in the Yorks Dales and I assume for the people up north Keilder would be a good place for big main events ?

Smaller Local rides can be every week if you want but should be arranged within the chat threads as per the guidlines that the Area Groups have been asked to work within.Then the other area's need to be cracked down on so that we are not the only area penalised with keeping to long windy threads that you just cannot see if any good local rides are on.
better still spring a sub-sub sections to keep them out of the way of the main events (don't think you can do that with phpBB2 though)

ThE Area Groups were set up to provide a series of organised rides throughout the year. These rides and events are designed to take what was already happening on a local level to the next stage. A set of guidelines were laid out for AECs regarding many aspects from planning, procedure of promotion to health, safety and very importantly insurance liability.
There is no cast iron recipe for Minimum Standard, I'm sure that many of the non AEC rides are to a good standard. The scenario is if someone sees a National or Regional ride advertised they can travel a good distance knowing that there will be a good turnout, good trails and a certain air of professionalism. If that person travelled a long way to join two people riding in the local woods for a few hours when he was expecting more he would be a little miffed when he could have done the same out of his back door!
As said before, these small local rides have always gone on and always will, we have one most weeks up here. But the Area Groups were not set up to promote such things- local rides can be arranged locally as they were before.
Now if you want to take those local rides to the next level, that's brilliant, that's what we want. If you can put on a ride, a ride that has something that will attract someone to drive a few hundred miles, for that someone to go home happy and be looking forward to the next one, then that's what we are looking for. That's the minimum standard- to give folk something to remember and to eventually build up a group of regular commited riders.

To sum up, it matters not where the ride is, that's why I'm asking for your ideas for next years routes. If you have a cracking route, provide your local knowledge and let your AEC and Deputies help promote that ride with you.

If you need to know more about the Area Groups and the role of AEC and Deputy just drop John or Mr Kawasaki a PM and they will explain things much better than I will.

As for the Chat threads- most areas only have the one and everyone takes part. MacRetro have people 300 miles apart but all take part in discussions. If you join in you know what's happening so nothing gets lost. If you insist on having lots of smaller chat threads then you end up with too much fragmentation. You now have a East Yorkshire thread that you can use for arranging your smaller local rides that are unlikely to be of interest to none locals- just as the NE riders use the one thread to the same effect. Some other areas have got bogged down with chat which is of some concern and is to be tackled at the end of the year when we are hauled in front of the head. But that's a matter for other area AECs to deal with. I have a job to do here (and remember I give up my spare time for this instead of going out riding) and I try to keep things within the guidelines put down by the site's owner and the National Events Co-ordinator.

So, back to locations. I like the idea of something around Beavis, Giant One and Brock's patch in the dales. Also would like to get the west, south yorks folks out- I'm sure we can put something on around Wakefield, Barnsley, Huddersfield area. Hooking up with the mids guys in the Peaks was fun this year as was the Bowland ride with those smelly Lancastrians.

Any more ideas? What's the east Yorkshire coast like Ben? Any potential?

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